History of the Cyclops
Legends states that 10,000 years ago, in a time when human civilisation was being founded in cities like Ibailionn and Woru, the giants of Drorn had long been spawned from the crafters (titans), and now warred with the dwarves who had been given unfair dominion over their lands to deal with the orc problem. Through their battles and deeds, giants of stone, hill, storm and even frost now existed having formed their own clans, the titan bloodline began growing thin after 12,000 years of separation. It was during such a time of struggle that one tribe, of what were presumed to be hill giants, had been driven out of their caves by the mountain dwarves and had searched through a barren patch of Drorn, devoid of life and even water. They looked to perish were it not for one of them spying the forbidden cave of knowledge. Their leader Kordak made a choice; although this place had been forbidden since the time of their ancestors, they would seek out its shelter and water and The Creator be damned. Inside they found a magical pool, there were many such things in Drorn for it was the place where magics of other worlds were used by the titans to forge the wonders of the world, but it was not known what this pool's powers were, except they were highly forbidden. With either this or death as an option, Kordak and his people drank from the pool and survived. But it was not over there, for the pool had given them great visions of their future, not only where food could be found to hunt, but also of an upcoming trap for their giant kin by the dwarves. Kordak and his people visited the other tribe of giants to tell them, but they did not believe, when he explained that they had drunk from the forbidden pool of knowledge, the other tribe leader was outraged at the betrayal of one of their most ancient laws. So as not to be cursed by The Creator, the tribe’s leader had Kordak and all his people's eyes gouged out and sent into the wilderness. While the tribe drove on to their inevitable doom as not to displease The Creator, Kordak and his people were lost and starving, all they knew was to go back to the cave, and so they did, and lived, and drank from the pool, and hunted the hidden game. Living as outcasts they bred among themselves, hoping a new generation would be born with the sight which had been removed from them, but this was not to be the case. All children of Kordak's tribe were born with a single eye. In time the pool ran dry, and they could no longer live there. Kordak and his generation knew that they would not be accepted into the world, but maybe their children would. He and his peers remained to die while the cyclops set out to explore the world of giants and find their place. Sadly it seems the cyclops were not accepted, shunned as freaks by the ignorant, and cursed by the giants who knew them. Most lived small isolated lives in caves. It wasn’t for many centuries when the races of goblins and kobolds started to invade their lands, that other shores where discovered to exist. The cyclops elders would still meet guided by visions at special times, and it is believed during one of these meetings they decided to seek out and find other lands where they would not be shunned. Though it was seen as certain death to travel the sea, they did so (though some legends have them walk by land), using their visions to guide them to safety. Many found islands upon the Ravaged Coast (east coast of Brachia that looks upon the Diabolic Ocean) where new sailors would stumble upon them, sometimes savage and hungry, other times wise and benevolent. One legend states that after the fall of Ibailionn (around 8,000 years ago), there was much war between the new cities, and refugees from an unknown city (some say Ibailionn itself, but this is unlikely) arrived seeking help from one ancient cyclops, Menta the Wizened. Menta foretold of great doom for the refugees, but eventual revenge against their attackers. His prophecy came true, and the grateful survivors deified Menta and made his island a sacred place. From this heightened reputation of the cyclops in the human lands, the more enlightened began to gather and not be shunned, and while many other cities were being founded, the cyclops founded one of the great and revered ones, Collos, right in the heart of modern Brachasia (north west of what would be Tor'tora). It was a giant city of splendid white marble, huge pillared coliseums (in fact this is where the name comes from) used for speaking wisdom and sharing their learned knowledge, where people from all over came to debate but more often seek out knowledge of the future. Though originally build for giants, the cyclops had taken many human mates, and over the centuries a new race grew more prevalent, the cylopeans, a shorter (though still tall) race with one eye that still retained their ancestors’ ability to look into the future and moulded their enlightened and peaceful ways. For 3,000 years the city was said to have thrived, never growing into a massive metropolis or colonizing other lands but being a place of wisdom and intellect, but most of all peace, possibly the one thing that would be its downfall. In the Age of Forbiddance (5,000pr) the first armies were being formed, but all respected and knew the wisdom of keeping these neutral people alive, for they believed in balance and harmony, never taking sides, sharing their knowledge with the rest of the world. This ended with the sudden appearance of Nantar, and its jungle empire. Little is known about its circumstances or governance, except it was a dominant world power that upon gaining initial strength and number totally decimated the city of Collos, and several others, then sat strong in the middle of Brachasia for centuries seeming to bide its time, content with its dominion. The cyclopean people were scattered wanderers for generations, while the elves were first leaving their shores they wondered as holy tribes people, when the tribes of old Ibailionn's wilderness finally headed north to Straitia, the cyclops took to living in abandoned ruins. When the first regal systems were being established in the north as the Age of Unwant (3,000pr) began, the cyclops started to rebuild themselves. When Hextor started to abuse the regal system to gain power up north (1,900pr), Minos was fully established near the ruins of old Ibailionn, even giants came from the north to start a new land in honour of the awoken titan, Azgoth. They were forced to keep low and refused the allegiance their former cousins wished to make with them to survive (13,000pr), and as the Szantzay empire unites with Hextor (600pr) to dominate the north, Minos is a large and successful city, with the wisdom to have an army this time, consisting of specially bred men who were said to have the strength of bulls and who the cyclopeans were said to have kept in deadly mazes that only their precognition could get them out of. Their land grew larger and they could tell that this was a time of growing darkness, where magic polluted the land through the Diaster's Colleges and vast armies fought for control over the land, but most dreaded of all was the return of their dreaded past - the giants. Evil titans returned from slumber had awoken and carved out a piece of the world in the form of Azgoth. They had taken this until around 1.300pr but it was only since their allegiance with the dreadful magical Colleges of Diaster that their power grew to a fearful level. Though they had mostly focused on wars with Debautugal and Tor'tura, the cyclops council knew that in time their land would be destroyed again and so they sought to aid rebels from the land of Tor'tura to overthrow their giant dominated government so they could be free to take on the evil Azgoth, but something went wrong. The cyclops were discovered and the revolt failed, and Azgoth took great offence at the betrayal of what were once their cousins, and now with the upper hand decided to take great revenge upon them and levelled their city, the mages of Diaster turning the great strong warriors into bull headed brutes to roam the ruins and eventually spread the world as the fabled minotaurs. All cyclopeans that were found were rounded up and sold into slavery, given the most menial of jobs, treated like dirt and forbidden even basic rights. Despite a few attempts at another rebellion, all failed and though it is possible a few cyclopeans survived the systematic hunting down of their race, no known cyclopeans settlements ever arose again. When Azgoth was cast into volcanic eruptions in 177pr only the slaves in Tor'tura survived. Over the last thousand years, the once eloquent, wise and sophisticated cyclopeans degenerated into savage brutes, with little to no recollection of their vast and great history, spanning longer than many of the other more prolific races of Lorald. Though the slaves have spread all around Brachasia and some have even formed free tribal pockets (yet showing absolutely no signs of rekindling their once great ways), the largest concentration of them is as an underclass in the poisoned land of Tor'tura, only one step up above the animals they use. Their once fabled ability to see the future, now only seeming to express itself in an uncanny combat instinct in the area battles they are thrown into within the fighting pits of Debautugal. True cyclopses still exist, but as lone isolated savages also, only ever coming out to find a mate or new animals to breed. In fact that is the one minor sign of their old sophistication they seem to have retained - whereas nearly all savage races (orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, goblins etc.) hunt to survive, the solitary cyclops still raises live stock in the form of cows, sheep or the native equivalent, tending to them and minimizing their impact on the land around them, as once did the great city of Collos.